On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 12:27 PM, Wacek Kusnierczyk <
Waclaw.Marcin.Kusnierczyk@idi.ntnu.no> wrote:

> it's certainly hard to design and implement a system of the size of r.
> it's certainly easier to just complain rather than make a better tool.
> but it would really be a pitiful world if all of us were just
> developing, and no one would criticize.  my purpose is not (or not just,
> if you prefer) to annoy the r team, but to point out and document issues
> that really need rethinking.  discouragingly, many of these issues
> appear to be known already, but simply ignored.
>

On the other hand, while there may be ground to complain,  it may be easier
to make your own version of subset.data.frame and  advertise it to everyone:

Substitute the second `substitute` in subset.data.frame for nothing, i.e.,
replace
       vars <- eval(substitute(select), nl, parent.frame())
.. with
      vars <- eval(select, nl, parent.frame())
.. and it will behave as you want (if I understood you).

# suppose you have modified subset.data.frame this way
# and called it waceks.subset
 df1<-data.frame(group="G1", visit="V1", value=0.9)
group <- c("group", "visit")

> subset(df1, select=group)
  group
1    G1

> waceks.subset(df1, select=group)
  group visit
1    G1    V1


KK

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